Where to live? Best School? Germantown/Collierville/Memphis (sales, 2015)

[JenH1]

We are considering relocating to Memphis and have a elementary school age child. If you could pick any area to live, where would it be? Super specific area detail would be helpful (ie. N of this street/W of this street, etc). Work would be in the Germatown area, E of 240, if that helps.

Also, I really would prefer to be in a great public school, but the merger of school district information I've read makes me nervous. What is the current situation with public schools? What would your first choice elementary school be? What would your first choice private school be?

[eastmemphisguy]

It depends on your budget, of course. Germantown and Collierville are pricey for the area. All the elementaries in Gtown and Collierville are good. Dogwood has the best test standardized scores of all, but lots of good schools all around. Most private schools have a religious affiliation, so that's something to consider if that suits you. Richland Elementary in East Memphis is also pretty good, and the area is more centrally located than the suburbs. In short, nowhere is the best for everybody. A lot has to do with your preferences.

[JenH1]

Originally Posted by eastmemphisguy

It depends on your budget, of course. Germantown and Collierville are pricey for the area. All the elementaries in Gtown and Collierville are good. Dogwood has the best test standardized scores of all, but lots of good schools all around. Most private schools have a religious affiliation, so that's something to consider if that suits you. Richland Elementary in East Memphis is also pretty good, and the area is more centrally located than the suburbs. In short, nowhere is the best for everybody. A lot has to do with your preferences.

Budget would allow $375K-475K for a house. Does that help narrow it down?

[Longtimelistener]

Try to buy in Collierville.

[JenH1]

Originally Posted by Longtimelistener

Try to buy in Collierville.

What area in Collierville do you suggest (which schools would it map to) and why? Also why do you suggest Collierville vs. Germantown/Memphis (E of 240/N of Poplar)?

[Longtimelistener]

Any part of Collierville is fine since the entire city either goes to Collierville High or into Houston High.
The east side of Germantown is solid and goes to Houston but the west side goes to Germantown High which is not as good. If you decide to roll the dice on the western side of Germantown make it the area west of Germantown Rd and north of Poplar. That is the Riverdale elementary/middle school area and much stronger than the Germantown elementary/middle school.
East Memphis area(east of 240/N of Poplar) isn't bad but you need to have a crystal ball to see if your child will test in the upper 5%. If he/she doesn't and you end up not in the optional part of White Station you will not be happy.

[Tigertate]

Originally Posted by JenH1

We are considering relocating to Memphis and have a elementary school age child. If you could pick any area to live, where would it be? Super specific area detail would be helpful (ie. N of this street/W of this street, etc). Work would be in the Germatown area, E of 240, if that helps.

Also, I really would prefer to be in a great public school, but the merger of school district information I've read makes me nervous. What is the current situation with public schools? What would your first choice elementary school be? What would your first choice private school be?

Here is a useful site to evaluate the schools in Memphis and Shelby County

http://edu.reportcard.state.tn.us/pls/apex/f?p=200:1:1306122576993992

Type in the specific school system and the specific school to get test score data, demographics etc.


All public schools in Germantown and Collierville will be good. Even Germantown High, the school the other poster talks about, is a good school that has the nationally recognized international baccalaureate program. Germantown HS is more racially diverse than Houston HS and Collierville HS and some people may not like that. My brother graduated from Houston High a couple years ago, so I can vouch for the quality of education and the extracurricular activities at that school. I won’t get to specific on where to live in either suburb because you will be able to find a great quality of life in any location in those cities. I do have school attendance zone information if you find a specific school you like using the link above and want to know the boundaries of the school zone.

The East Memphis area is also very nice. Your budget would allow you to live in a very nice, centrally located area that feeds into Richland Elementary, which is a really good public school, and White Station High school which has the best Optional Program (I.e. Magnet Program) in the area. The overall academic performance of all students at WS High (combining optional and general) is on par with Houston HS and Collierville HS, but WS does have 2 schools operating on one campus; the optional program and the general ed. program. The students in both programs share the same campus and participate in extracurricular activities together. The optional side of WS high school is probably the best education you can get in this metro area. Some people do not like the general education side of WS High because some of the students will be rough around the edges. With that being said there is rarely any safety or discipline issue at WS High. There are also several great private schools in the East Memphis area if you all are thinking about going private. Private school tuition can run anywhere from 6K to 15K per year depending on which school you are in. The Catholic schools typically have more reasonable tuition.

I also wanted to address your concerns about the school merger situation. There is another thread on the Memphis Board that discusses this in more detail, but I wanted to give you the jist of what is going on. To make a long story short, the Memphis City School system dropped their charter and will be absorbed into the formerly all suburban Shelby County School system. The suburban leaders are not happy about this and are making plans to form their own individual city run school systems. State law has been adjusted to allow this to happen and the people in the suburbs are voting on this move as we speak. This will pass in the burbs easily. Most suburbs plan to have their system up and running by the 2014-2015 school year. The upcoming school year 2013-2014, will be a merged system (City and Suburb), but that is expected to last only one year before the suburbs break away.

[ckdub]

Both Germantown and Collierville schools are outstanding pretty much across the board, and you will have many good schools to choose from. East Memphis is beautiful and has benefits of being closer in toward the city, but there are more challenges/factors in terms of getting your child into a good school in the East Memphis area. Yes, Richland and White Station schools are probably the best in that area, and they are the main good public schools that everyone wants to put their kids in.

Another consideration is that if you live in East Memphis, your property taxes will be considerably higher. Collierville and Germantown do not have Memphis city property taxes.

[eastmemphisguy]

Your budget is high enough that you can pick wherever you want to live. With financial room to spare if you, like me, prefer to live with a bigger financial cushion than most folks. East of 240 in Memphis is not White Station. It is Ridgeway High, which I would not recommend. White Station and Richland are inside the loop. Personally, I find Collierville to be too far out, but I'm sure lots of people would disagree. Again, it's more about what's best for you than what's best in a Top 10 list sort of way. Do you prefer new construction or an established neighborhood? Are you a restaurants and nightlife person or a peace and quiet kind of person? Are you trying to be near a particular religious/ethnic community? Also, Germantown and Collierville have raised their taxes to pay for their municipal district, so that advantage is not as high as it used to be.

[Longtimelistener]

Originally Posted by eastmemphisguy

Your budget is high enough that you can pick wherever you want to live. With financial room to spare if you, like me, prefer to live with a bigger financial cushion than most folks. East of 240 in Memphis is not White Station. It is Ridgeway High, which I would not recommend. White Station and Richland are inside the loop. Personally, I find Collierville to be too far out, but I'm sure lots of people would disagree. Again, it's more about what's best for you than what's best in a Top 10 list sort of way. Do you prefer new construction or an established neighborhood? Are you a restaurants and nightlife person or a peace and quiet kind of person? Are you trying to be near a particular religious/ethnic community? Also, Germantown and Collierville have raised their taxes to pay for their municipal district, so that advantage is not as high as it used to be.

I doubt a half cent sales tax hike will cause anyone to go into debt. Memphis will keep pushing for it and will eventually succeed. Difference is the suburbs will put all the extra money into schools and Memphis will use it to keep people employed or keep an unneeded firehouse open like they did last night.